


Wrong Side Of Town

by superfxckboy



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: M/M, Reaper76 Reverse Big Bang, Vigilante AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-07
Updated: 2017-12-07
Packaged: 2019-02-11 21:01:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12943809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/superfxckboy/pseuds/superfxckboy
Summary: Before they got married, before their kids, before they unmasked each other in the over baring luminescence of Neo-Oasis' streets, Reaper and Solider: 76 met on the wrong side of town.





	Wrong Side Of Town

**Author's Note:**

> This is seven to eight chapters, it's completed and to be posted every other week or so. This first chapter is short due to me being incapable of breaking up a fic into anything related to chapters, but the next few chapters will be between 5-7k. 
> 
> Thanks to my sweet bb Nada for waiting for this, cheering me on, and putting up with literally four re-writes and lots of tears.
> 
> Link to the fics mood playlist here: https://soundcloud.com/user-508102627/sets/wrong-side-of-town
> 
> and the prompt was basically vigilante husbands who had to divorce due to moral differences. I chose to write how they got together and then how they got _back_ together.

They met on the wrong side of town.

Neo-Oasis was all high glossy black skyscrapers, chrome and black glass streets with clean running, energy efficient housing, cars, public transportation. It made for a pretty post card if you visited, a good diploma to have in your hand if you happened to graduate from it’s college, made for a good story if you happened to have been raised there. But right outside of the city, it was concrete and brick, blinking neon blue and red lights, and smoggy, thick air. It was dark and dank, with pitch black alleyways and a constant overcast sky. Outside of Neo-Oasis felt like _under_ Neo-Oasis, and it acted like the underbelly of a city as well.

When Jack met Gabriel he was still Reaper, and still had a mask that struck terror into every into any idiot criminal that crossed his path on a dark night, was still silent in the face of questions and accusations to his purpose.

But he was still a _hero_ in his own way. He tackled situations that the police force gave kid gloves, made the tougher decisions that would take weeks of paperwork to get done, and did it silently. Efficiently. He never expected or requested anything in return.

He was clutching his side in teeth clenched pain when Jack finally found him. At the time, they were the only vigilantes that watched over the nights of Neo-Oasis, so they often dipped into each other’s space with nothing more than a nod of acknowledgment before going their separate ways. This evening Jack had already seen Reaper once and gave him a two-fingered salute that Reaper inclined his head towards. That was the usual extent of their communication, but the man had seemed _off_ this evening. Jack was perched on winding stair case on the side of building, eyes scanning over the streets as drunken citizens made their way home, when a shadow stumbled into the alley next to him. From the way said shadow was stumbling, Jack found himself making his way down the side of the building to see what was wrong.

Reaper generally kept to himself; dropping criminals to the police station, keeping to rooftops and helping kids find their way home. He dodged the police as much as Jack _used to_ but he was a good person, Jack could tell. The way he would somehow just show up just when Jack thought he had gotten himself in too deep, there was a dramatic swirl of a black cape and Reaper was there to even the odds.

Jack felt like he owed the guy one.

“Hey, tall dark and scary,” he started, squatting in front of Reaper, who’s hooded head snapped up. “Come here often?”

Reaper’s laugh was wet sounding, and Jack frowned, taking off his visor to easier assess the damage. After one too many run ins with almost having his visor knocked off, he came to wear a domino mask under his visor as well with a similar use as his visor proper. Reaper looked the same as he always did, pitch black coat, silver, clawed gauntlets, big boots and an intimidating white mask.

“Reaper, what happened?”

The man lifted his mask for a moment to spit blood before answering. His skin was a warm brown, information that Jack was quick to file away. “A kid was upset I put his older brother in jail. Didn’t think he was going to just stab me.”

“Don’t you wear Kevlar under there?” Jack asked, his voice taking on a more frantic edge.

“Obviously, blondie.” Jack couldn’t see under his mask at all, to see if he was amused or not, but Jack didn’t find any of this funny. “He didn’t hit anywhere important--”

“Uh huh,” Jack replied, looking at the sticky stains of blood on Reaper’s gauntlets. “Alright, let’s go, I’m getting tetanus just sitting here.”

He got to his feet and offered a hand to Reaper.

There was a beat, and for a second, Jack thought Reaper would just brush him off, until a clawed gauntlet took his offered hand.

Neo-Oasis was _supposed_ to be a shining example of the world stepping into the future, but Jack felt like the city was _broken_. Neo-Oasis’ High Counselor’s campaign to wipe out the homeless from her black glass and chrome city had been working, and people truly believed that the outskirts of the city didn’t belong. The High Counselor’s hatred of the poor and the people who built the city turned inward. The class division worsened. So called super villains appeared, on a crusade to destroy what they themselves had built, from the inside out.

Reaper was the first to appear. First thought to be an urban legend, Reaper took the attention of Neo-Oasis’ police force when he took down the leader of a notorious gang of bank robbers—something the police force had been struggling to do for years – and delivered him to the Commissioner’s door on Christmas.

Jack could admit that his own creation of the Soldier was in response to Reaper’s daring saves and exemplary detective work. He was still in college (Neo-Oasis’ pre-law courses were some of the best in the world) and maybe his specific focus for going to law school wasn’t going to get him the money he’d need to pay back his student loans, but there was absolutely nothing that was going to stop him from joining Reaper one day, on the rooftops of the city.

“So, this is a stupid thing to be stuck on,” Jack started, as the two slowly walked up black chrome staircase that wound up the back of an apartment building.

“I’m sure you’ll power through it anyway.”

“Dick." Jack snapped out playfully,before he could stop himself. "I was _saying_ we’ve never properly been introduced.”

Reaper lifted his head, his mask as expressionless as it always was, but Jack could feel the disbelief coming off the man in waves. He bit his lip, hoping Reaper would answer, he wanted to actually _talk_ to him for once.

“I thought it would be fairly obvious who I am,” Reaper started laconically, just as Jack felt his cheek starting to bleed from how hard it was biting it in _sheer embarrassment_. “I’m Reaper. What’s the seventy-six on your back mean?”

“If I said nothing specific, would you believe me?”

“Only if you say it with full knowledge that I am a detective, then be my guest.”

Jack chuckled helplessly. At least Reaper had more of a sense of humor than his costume and demeanor implied. The two settled the upwards curved roof, moving out of sight of the sun shaped holes in the metal, and Jack pulled his med kit from his gear and motioned for Reaper to sit next to him.

“Do you want a morphine shot?”

“Ha. A biotic is fine, Seventy-Six.”

Once the warm glow of Jack’s biotic field surrounded the two of them, with Reaper leaning against the square side of one of the potted trees, Jack thought to ask another question. Reaper had gone entirely silent, barely a twitch since he rested back against the pots, but the silence wasn’t uncomfortable. At the height they were at, the stars weren’t being drowned out by the city’s constant glow, and the sharp honking of hover cars wasn’t _so_ shrill.

“So, was it you that started calling yourself The Reaper, or was that something the police department picked out for you?” Jack finally asked, the warmth pouring from the biotic making him feel a little less tense.

Reaper didn’t make a motion to move, but Jack heard a quiet chuckle.

“Bit of both, really.” Reaper held up a clawed gauntlet, looking like he was admiring the blood on them – but Jack wasn’t entirely sure if it was his or someone else’s. Before he could ask, Reaper’s voice took on an accent that made Jack raise an eyebrow behind his domino mask. “The Reaper was born outside of the City, but he was born without a name. All he knew was the way the vermin whispered _El Segador_ when his shadows followed them into an alley.”

Jack bit his lip, unsure how he was supposed to respond to the display, but Reaper snorted, breaking the silence.

“No wonder you have to wear that visor. Your face is—” Reaper leaned forward, and Jack stared back at the white mask, a little unnerved. “Expressive.”

“Wait, were you fucking with me?”

“Entirely.” Reaper dropped the accent and leaned back, making Jack narrow his eyes.

“Oh, so that’s why you don’t talk. You think you’re funny.”

“I do talk. It isn’t my fault I couldn’t think of anything to say before you dashed off on me.”

“Yeah?” Jack brought his legs up and crossed them, leaning back to bask in the warming glow. “I figured you were a lone wolf type; liked to work alone, trust issues, the whole nine yards.”

“You really think you have me pegged, don’t you?”

“It’s just a guess. I don’t know you.”

“You never asked.”

Jack didn’t respond, rolling their little encounter over in his head. Reaper was hard to read, both because of his mask and because of his body language. The man seemed relaxed with the short distance between them, long legs stretched out, arm still pressed close to his side, but Jack could feel it; Reaper was poised to bolt, stab wound or not, if Jack even twitched wrong.

In the end, Reaper didn’t take Jack’s further offered help, but instead instructed Jack to leave him and he would make his way back to his base when he was comfortable with leaving.

It was tentative, but Reaper just taking his offered hand was enough to have Jack jumping from roof top to rooftop with a grin on his masked face.


End file.
